Researchers have found a connection between binge drinking among college students and a decline in their ability to pay attention and use working memory. The findings were particularly troublesome because no one knows if these effects last into later life.
- Researchers studied 95 male and female students from the University of Santiago in northwest Spain. The students were between 18 and 20 years old.
- Forty-two students were classified as binge drinkers; the others did not have a drinking problem.
- The students were hooked up to electrophysiological monitors as they performed tasks associated with attention and working memory.
- The ones who engaged in binge drinking had to put in more effort to complete tasks, although they were able to perform the tasks correctly.
Dr. Florence Kellner said the significance of the research "might be up in the air, because what we don't know really is the long-term impact, which is, will these differences endure in later life? One thing we do know is that young students when they drink heavily tend to clean up their acts quite a bit when they graduate, get jobs and have families, especially when they have children."
This study and Dr. Kellner's comment appeared in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Labels: research, college-students, binge_drinking
Posted By: Aspen/CRC